I can't say there haven't been times I didn't want to - or times I thought about it - or times just the first letter maybe slipped out but then I stopped myself - and I know there are some preachers out there who have become famous for doing it --- but I never have.
Not yet.
"We now seem so unconcerned with whether or not we CAN, that we don't stop to think about whether or not we SHOULD."
When I was a kid, there were these substitute curse words that seemed passable - things you could 'get away with.' For instance, if you hit your thumb with a hammer and you said, 'Golly Gee Willikers, that hurt!,' you'd probably get a mild rebuke, but at least you wouldn't get the entire bar of soap down your throat. So there were ways around the offense.
I won't say whether I've managed to avoid 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100% of those things; you'll just have to stay guessing on those, but if you've ever had something so absolutely and unexpectedly frustrating happen to you, then you know the temptation to the tongue. You know the thing that starts way down deep in your innards and starts working its way up, up, up, up, up - thru your esophagus and past the trachea - tickling your epiglottis and slapping at the tonsils - elbowing the soft and hard palate and then coaxing at the tongue to move in ways you don't want it to, in ways you know it really shouldn't. You know what I'm talking about.
But let's not even get to that particular extreme. Let's just talk every day language. It seems to me that Christ-followers have sucked up (no pun intended) nearly all the vernacular used by the world. All of it. Nothing seems off limits now.
We now seem so unconcerned with whether or not we CAN, that we don't stop to think about whether or not we SHOULD. And I'm just saying ... maybe we oughta think about that.
And be blessed.
4 comments:
I don't mean to make light of your blog, but the fact that you have never sworn in your whole life....makes me incredulous. Even when you hurt yourself? Even when someone hurt your wife or kids? Based on my yrs(?) of reading your blog, are you human? Sometimes, I think you are so dedicated to follow "the rules" that you are not a regular human being.I am not sure if it makes me proud of you or sad, because you care more about following the rules, than being a normal person. God will forgive you...
I don't mean to make light of your response, but the fact that you rail on someone who has never sworn is incredulous to me. That we have come to a place in our society where we would call people 'not regular human beings' because they actually have remained faithful to God's Word in some area of their life - and call it 'caring more about following the rules than being a normal person' 's a testimony to where we are with God in our society. It has nothing to do with following rules whatsoever. It is about trying to love God with my speech. If that makes me abnormal, I'll take it. I'm not saying I have been as faultless in other areas of my life in terms of my obedience to God (if that makes you feel any better), but in this area, I have managed to remain victorious.
PS -- this blog response almost made me curse.
As the MOM of PK, I can say, and I have told many people that I have never even heard PK say DARN.
Needless to say, he mother has slipped many times, but the son never picked up. I am very proud to be the MOTHER of such a wonderful man of God. Love ya SON
THANKS, MOM! :)
I confess I might have said "GOSH" a few times. :)
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